OLDEST CITY IN BELGIUM: This Is Our Hometown!! (Belgium Travel Vlog)
This, is dongren. The oldest city in belgium. With a rich history, dating back more than 2, 000, years. Today we are going to explore, its antique, city center. I miss this, walk on top of first century, roman walls. And show you around, in what is essentially. Our hometown. Good, morning, welcome to belgium, today, we are exploring. The oldest. City, of belgium, city of tonyan, and, and, it's our hometown, it's our hometown, it's where we grew up it's where i was born where you were born as well yeah we grew up here we lived here went to school this is our hometown. All the city of belgium, and really happy to share with you today, today is obviously going to be a bit different from the last time you were here. We have to wear the face mask within the city center so, most of the day you're not going to be able to see our beautiful, smile, just to be sure, it is i it is him yes. So first, order of the day. Is we're going to get some breakfast, yeah some breakfast sometimes because we're hungry it's early morning typical belgium. I mean what do people eat in the morning. This is the main shopping street in tongan. It's where most of the shops are located, one long street there's few side streets. But we've come now to tonga's, most famous, and probably, best, bakery. This is really the. Top bakery, that we have here in tonga. Yeah. Really really good so let's have a look inside see if we can find we need some breakfast, we need some fuel to get us through this day of. Filming. Stop at another place get some coffee. Now we are complete, and. Got myself cooking with it, wow. World. Oh yeah we'll give you a few more facts about tonga in a minute. But it's not that big, sweet around right now like they said the mustache. Is the main shopping street. It's also not super long it's just a short, 10 minute walk to get from, where we started filming to where, the main square, is we're now gonna go to the main square, show you around there a little bit and find a nice spot, to try our breakfast.
What Do you think the belgian food will be like, i know it's my first time trying it. So we have found ourselves, a very cute. Very tiny. Bench, right in the middle. Of the city center that is very nice. Parky looking area here 10 meters off the street here but there's a really nice. Small little park here next to the. City hall actually. Uh on our way to the main square but we're just gonna have a quick little bite here before we head on out to the main square, is there room for me. On this bench barely. It is actually, just a tiny tiny bit weird. To film a video. In our hometown. Because we've been here so many times. Like isn't it a little bit weird how's the coffee oh it's really good oh yeah. It's really nice it smells good cappuccino. That is good, and that's ooh that is really good actually, but that's great because we're now paying belgium, prices people, just a little bit of, like a small cup of coffee like this one cost us how much. To euro, 60.. How good does that look this looks super good it's like a it's a meat firebase, with sugar glazing, some raisins, not sure what's on the inside i think a bit of sugar as well. Probably it's a pastry so there's gonna be loads of sugar in there oh yeah. I missed. This. Very sweet lots of raisins in there fluffy. Crunchy, everything you want you can tell ooh, and it's like super moist on the inside you can see oh that looks, amazing. Oh my gosh. I'm so good though i have missed this this is typical. Belgian, breakfast like for weekends, or when you have yourself a treat or something, yeah, something especially on weekends, or you have castles, or chocolate rolls filled with some chocolate, as well because i mean we are belgian, we chocolate, everything. And. Nice coffee to go. This cute little park, this wasn't here the last time you were in town, oh yeah of course it was i've been here for a long time. I never noticed. Right, we made it to the main, square. This is the. Main square of don. The main, part of the city center here, it's where uh most of the. Some of the most famous, bars and restaurants, are located.
Also, Behind us. Is the basilica. Basilica, of tongan, and. Our, city, and, actually, belgium. Hero. Our hero, hero of the olex which we'll tell you, more about in a minute, first we're gonna head to the basilica, because that's supposed to that's supposed to be i can actually confirm, it's nice we've been there. But it's supposed to be. Nice. It's beginning of september, now and the weather is sort of. Some days it's nice and sunny like today. We had lots of luck that it's not rainy today, because the past two days it was pretty rainy, and it's even quite warm outside, like when the sun is out i think it's, in the 20s, 20 degrees celsius people in belgium, in september. Which is good news for autumn i think. This, is. Probably the most famous, and beautiful, building yeah, the basilica. It's unesco, world heritage, unesco, world heritage, its history, dates back very very long they have done some excavation, works beneath it and they found houses, which were built in the first second and third century. Actually tonga, as well it was an old roman, city so it's a history of more than 2 000 years the current building was actually started building it in the 13th, century. There were a few before that but they fell in disrepair. And there was fire, and, it was destroyed but this one. Started building in the 13th century and took 300, years to complete. And according to wikipedia, not all words those are words of wikipedia, this is the most beautiful. Religious. Gothic, style building, in all of belgium so it's gothic style you can tell by the classical, gothical, style arches. How high is it like how tall is it yes, it is, yes yes. I used to know all these things because, we learned about in school so many times because oh hey. But, i have to check because i forgot. Sorry teachers. It was all in vain. Everything you taught me. Was higher. Oh wait let me guess. I will guess. It is about. 80 meters high. It's. 55.55. Meters high, really but then there's another. Thing that says 64, meters so maybe. Depends on how you measure, it or without the top probably something like that but it's about. 60 meters high, it's almost 800, years old and has survived, for a very very long time has survived, numerous things and probably will survive others well, i hope it does. I hope so i think part of it, is actually in roman. Style the the building behind it which is also attached to it's called the omegan. I'm not sure how to call in english but it's. This part around about literally, it's the part you would translate it as the part that goes around. Like the aisle that goes around, and i've never actually been there well at least not that i can remember have you tried, i have been there actually with school and we can try to go there i'm not sure if it's open but first maybe, visit the inside of the. Church. The funny thing is this church, no matter how long ago it is that i last set foot in here this doesn't change. It stays, exactly the same and it's been a while since i've been in. 15 years probably since i've last been there yeah it's really, it's really beautiful. It's actually, very richly decorated, more rich, than i remember, and i especially, love the windows, yeah the lead glass is very beautiful, very cool so colorful, especially on a sunny day like this when there's lots of light coming into the church. Of the columns, and. The gothic, style, arches. Inside, the church as well, you're very nice it's actually more beautiful than i remember. The stuff you discover, when you explore.
In Your own backyard. It's pretty nice being interested, in. Belgium. When you're inside, the museum, that's located, right here next to the church. Uh you can walk, underneath, the church like literally underneath, where we are now, a few meters below, and you can see the different, levels of ruins, from roman times etc, that they uncovered, underneath here and apparently, i didn't notice, the way they discovered, those ruins, and the reason they started doing all these excavations. Underneath, and around the basilica. Is because they wanted to install. Floor, heating, under floor heating. Right here in the church to improve the climate a little bit because i mean it gets too cold in winter, stuff like that and then they actually, stumble, upon these ancient ruins from roman times etc, there's two thousand years of history beneath the church right here underneath. This. Floor. So right now, we are in the, museum. Right next to the basilica, which actually runs partly, underneath. The basilica, in the subterranean, part where you can see the ancient, roman walls it was really nice we, we just we've never been here this museum is brand new, sparta museum is brand new we just walked through here, it was really really nice there's an archeological. Site and a treasure room as well in the treasury, you can see, golden, chalices. Relics, all sorts of stuff, you also have this audio guide that changes, every time you enter a new room yeah it's fully automatically. Actually a really good museum, like i'm surprised, now to be here and to see dona in this new light like so much history, and you need to have the archaeological, side where you have the roman, remains, the remains of the old churches, everything really really interesting, we didn't really film there because it was dark and, so this video would get very very long just on this side alone, but now, yeah we are at the omaha, which we talked about earlier, yeah it's the beautiful, cloistered. Garden. Really really nice was part of a monastery. I think not entirely, sure what the exact history of this is. This part's, probably, older than the. Church or at least build an older style because here you can see. Archways, are completely, round which is, roman style it's also a lot smaller, the windows are very small these are very small. Well if you look at the gothic, church right next to it. Very big windows, pointy, tips, very different building style, but this. Occasionally, i hear like church music coming from your audiobook, which makes it extra dramatic, oh yeah there's some church music. It's really really beautiful there's almost nobody here we just saw two other people, even if you're from torah, and like us you've never been here because you're like eh i live here how special can it really be it actually, is really nice this museum like a lot of people have probably, been here, to like the monastery, garden, but the actual museum is only two to four years old depending on which part, part, one part of the museum was only open, less than two years ago and you had one four years ago so, if you haven't been here in the last two to four years, definitely check this out yeah it's really nice makes you appreciate, doing it from a whole new. Angle. So now for some random facts about belgium some of which are useful, some of which are not, at all belgium, was founded, in 1830. It's currently a country with a population, of about, 12, million people just about, and we have three official languages. None of which are called, belgium, not logical, at all it's french. Dutch, and german because we have borders and are surrounded, by, france. Dutchland. The netherlands. And germany, german land. I am from german land the capital, of belgium, is brussels, a very international, city that we're going to show you probably, in the next video, and our most famous export, products the things belgium. Is most known for in basically the whole world, is belgian, chocolate, belgian, beer and belgian, fries, not french fries the french did not invent, fries, we did and belgium.
Until Recently, held the world record, of being without a government for 540. Days. There was, luckily 41, days 541. But luckily, luckily we broke our own record. And set the record, more firmly, at 500, and i think 90 days almost 600, just maybe to nuance it a bit, it's not like we don't have a government, there's still a government in place and we have six seven, different governments, probably, more, uh depending on how we want to look at it so we have a bunch of functioning government just a federal government which. Hasn't made a new coalition yet but still. The world records ladies and gentlemen, previously, that record was in the name of iraq, which went only, compared to belgium, 200, something days without a government but we knew numbers. And this is our town here actually one of our national heroes, ambiolics. He was a leader of a local. Tribe here in tongan, actually the iberons. Very fierce, warriors, and he actually became, very famous, as a hero. Because the romans, invaded, this area and i wanted to take all the food they had here because the roman, army was running out of food it was julius caesar leading the army, and he came here and he said give us all your food here we'll slaughter, you. Ambio, except. Not giving up my food, come on you bring your own lunch damn it yeah and he actually, schemed, the romans, he tricked them into like an, area that he knew very well which was a bit hilly and where they couldn't. Really use their big big numbers. So the small, tribe, here of the abrahams. Slaughtered. A roman, army, of more than seven, thousand, soldiers. The people in rome and julius caesar in particular, they were really, really pissed off. And i think they sent an army of. 50, to 60, 000. People and. In the end they lost but they put up a really big fight, and with just a small village small tribe like this, they managed to stave, off, the romans, four months and a couple of years probably and slaughtered, many of them so. Our town hero, caesar, wrote about him, in his, diary, actually, and he wrote the bell guy which was the, big. Group family group of tribes here the belgae. Are the bravest, of them also the fiercest, warriors, they've ever seen and the bravest of them also. So now you know you try to take our bear you try to take our fries we come and get you you bring your own stay away from our food especially for roma, when you haven't been. In your own hometown. We're even in your own country, for quite some time, like we just, we were just away for, seven months, and we haven't been back to belgium. Since. And then when you come back you start to appreciate some stuff, because you're in tourist mode like when you're abroad you're in tourist mode you go inside seeing everywhere, and then suddenly when you come back to this place, that is all so familiar. You're also here in sort of a tourist mode especially, now because we're filming and stuff, and then you notice like the nice cobblestone. Streets and the beautiful, belgian, architecture. The nice building, and it's so nice to look at your own. Home to look at your own country, through completely, new eyes. But now we are leaving city center. This here, walk for about, five minutes.
Maximum, Five, small city small city. Here at the agita, city center almost there it's at the end of the, at the end of the street here small streets of southwest. But, but, here, at just behind, kim who's actually holding the camera right now. Be careful, there's a step behind you, oh. Here. Is our school. Where we went to. We did our high school here this is actually, the playground. I'm not gonna go inside i don't think it's allowed with coronavirus. Stuff and all technically. Technically, i think right now this arm is inside so i'm gonna do it like this but, you and i spend a lot of time on this playground, together, because, in case you don't know nick and i, have now been together, for, a good 13, years. Ever since we finished high school we got back together, again, but before that we were also together, for a year and a half, yep and we both studied, at this school, we saw each other multiple times a day, here on the playground. This is where the disaster, started. This is ground zero. This is where it all runs wrong. So romantic. Snake, of the uh, of the past if you see this is nike of the future. Don't do it man don't do it if you see her just run away keep running don't look back change schools whatever you. Need. All those good memories, anyway. Moving on to. Culture. And this. Take the mask off because it's not mandatory, outside the city center. This, is what they call, history. At your fingertips. This wall this is what they call the roman, wall, this is pretty much the oldest part if not absolutely, the oldest. Part that is still left of ancient, tornado, it's almost, 2000, years old, this piece of wall here, is one of the best preserved. I know take that with a grain of salt but one of the best preserved, pieces of roman wall still left in toner, it actually used to form part of the four and a half kilometer, fortified, wall that used to loop around tomorrow, together with some gates it ensured the safety, of the city you can even see over there that the wall makes a little, a little blimp out onto the road that probably used to be a watchtower, at some point but it's pretty cool there are like these random pieces of wall, that line, the outer parts, of the, city center and you can see here that someone actually has. Their home built right next to it that's, pretty cool to have that, right, in front of your house. As you can see here most of the wall especially the sections that come closer. To the road where there are cars driving. Pretty close. Especially, these sections, they have this wire that they nailed up against, it to fortify, the wall and to make sure that if any of the pieces come crumbling down they don't hit pedestrians. Cars you know, safety first people safety. First. And then here we have the wild, belgian. Jungle. Right in between these different sections of wall, they say if you come here, late in the evening you can almost, hear the lion. And the panthers, roar. If the traffic doesn't do that for you wolves, lions, everything, in the wild jungle here. We even made it on top of the wall here, you can see right here, not for the wall no for the wall, when you look across the fields you can. Feel what it's like just to. Be a roman, and just. Watch over the fields and over the hills for, see if there any savages. Attacking, us. Yeah. Phil built the roman now even though i'm from tongan and probably they fought against the ruins but anyway. That's all in the past now, and now it's time, for. A bit more of an other, historic. Area of tonga, a bit more recent but still very historic, so let's go and have a look there. We made it to the beginning, of as we call it here in tongare, in english it has a little bit of a weird name it's called, the big winnage. After, big wins, essentially, a big win, is let's say similar, to, a monk in a monastery. Or none, and then it's a little bit more relaxed, than that because they didn't take any formal religious, vows, but this is essentially let's say a type of relaxed, monastery. Yeah but it's particularly. Beautiful and this is the oldest, part, of toronto yeah these are the oldest houses, here in tonga they date back to the medieval, century. They basically, remained, here because, during at the end of the medieval, times the, franks, if i'm not mistaken. Entered the city of tonga and burned the complete city, nothing, was left except, but, for this. The big wins knew in advance what was happening and they paid off the incoming, army, to let the big winners, survive, which is why the rest of the city was burned down but this part is still the original. The oldest, part and they're all protected.
Houses, All of them have been beautifully restored, actually. It wasn't like that especially when i was growing up as a kid there were some that fell, really into disrepair, but all of them have been beautiful, beautiful restaurants i think this is now a unesco, world heritage, site. Right. It could be could be a natural i know the church the, the, basilica. As well and if it's not unesco, if you're watching, yeah this deserves to be it's at least protected, belgian, heritage, i'm not sure if it's unesco, but it's really, really, beautiful, old medieval, style houses. It's been beautifully restored. It's just a beautiful tranquil, area there's not many people around. Here. And this is probably, in terms of the architecture, in the houses. The most beautiful, part. In all of toronto's city center. It looks really, really. Quaint, and authentic. Beautiful buildings, so lanes, winding lanes small like this big water but but, it is also. Super, expensive. If you want a house here my parents actually looked into it i think, but it's, really really, the problem is that, you, can buy there's still one or two. That we saw and now, uh houses, in this repair and probably they're fairly cheap, but problem is that they're all protected, and you need to preserve, it back into the original state and there's lots and lots, of things you need to do and comply with all the way to, the front. So it's really really expensive, to renovate, this so yeah but it's it's good that they do it actually because now they, really keep the original, character with this beginning, big windage. Big win edge we're not sure if we're pronouncing it the big winner, monastery. Area, religious, people. Square. So, that concludes, our visit for tonga, for today, there's actually a lot more to discover, you've got the old city walls here the, city gate which is pretty high you can go on top of that and then the more rural, parts. The city. We may work some of that into one of our later videos including maybe the rural parts, around, here. Uh more like the landscape, stuff as well if you're interested, let us know let us know. Know more about tonga and the surrounding, area of it and we'd also love to know what you thought of tomorrow. If you have never been to belgium is this what you pictured belgium to be like. In the next video we're gonna go to brussels which for the last six or seven years of our life in belgium, was our home city so, lots coming up in the next few videos, more of belgium we hope you enjoyed this one if you did please leave a big like hit the like button, subscribe, if you want to see more of our journey and we will see you in the next one. Bye. The.
2020-09-16 20:53
